Scope and Content Note

Eric Reisman was born in Vienna, Austria, on April 26, 1926. His family originated in Czechoslovakia. At the time of the Anschluss, Reisman’s mother was forced to scrub the sidewalk outside of their apartment. Reisman, his brother Paul, and their parents, managed to get a Chinese visa from the Consul Feng Shan Ho, which helped them get a passage to Shanghai on the “Conte Biancamano” in November 1938.

In Shanghai Reisman attended the Public and Thomas Hambry School, then the Kadoorie School. He celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in Hongkou in April 1939. In 1943 they had to move into the Designated Area. Reisman worked in a pharmacy and learned to box from Alfred Kohn, nicknamed “Lako”. After the war ended, he worked for Northwest Airlines at Kiangwan airport. His parents came to the United States in 1947. His brother Paul married in Shanghai and went to Bolivia. Reisman came to the US in 1949. He got married and worked many years for Sikosky Aircraft. Eric Reisman died on June 30, 1999.